Powell Says War Service Should Pertain to Everyone
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell refused to get into the debate over the Vietnam service of the presidential candidates on Sunday but said if the United States ever went back to mandatory enlistment, everybody should be "equally liable" for war service.
Powell made the remark on "Fox News Sunday," explaining his opposition to Vietnam-era policies that allowed many, including his boss, President Bush, to serve in Reserve and National Guard units instead of on the battlefield.
Powell said he disagreed with the policies that allowed people like Bush to serve out the war in a National Guard unit. "But those were the policies that were in place at that time," Powell said. "And President Bush and Senator Kerry volunteered to serve their nation under the policies that were in place. And both served honorably and both were discharged honorably."
The war records of Bush and his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who was decorated for his service in Vietnam, have been a subject of heated debate in the presidential campaign.
"The policies determining who would be drafted and who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live, were an anti-democratic disgrace," Powell, a leading black in the Republican administration, said in his 1995 autobiography, "My American Journey."
"I am angry that so many sons of the powerful and well-placed managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units," wrote Powell, a 35-year career soldier and four-star general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush's father, former President Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton.
http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=6212173
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